ISRAEL'S military has drafted plans for a large-scale ground invasion of Gaza to topple Hamas and destroy its military infrastructure.
As Israeli forces go on high alert after the killing of Hezbollah's senior guerrilla commander Imad Mughniyah last week, prime minister Ehud Olmert and defence minister Ehud Barak are coming under pressure to act to stop rocket attacks from the Islam
ic militants on southern Israel.
Fears of giving away too much detail have led to Barak warning media outlets not to publish specifics, but sources close to the government confirmed that if the go-ahead was given for a large-scale operation to take place, it would involve "a highly significant number of ground troops".
Sources told Scotland on Sunday: "The military leadership is telling the political leadership: 'If you send us to war, let us fight'."
"There would be no pussy-footing this time around," one source said. "There's much debate as Olmert doesn't want a large-scale military operation, but since he also doesn't want to negotiate directly with Hamas, there will come a time when he will need to give the go-ahead."
A large-scale operation is expected to include the calling up of tens of thousands of reservists, and also the involvement of ground troops from day one. The ultimate objective would be to weaken Hamas by destroying its infrastructure.
Sources confirmed that lessons had been learnt from Israel's disastrous war in Lebanon in 2006.
"There'll be no over-reliance this time around on aerial support, that's for sure," one source said.
The reservists would mainly replace infantry and armoured brigades that would be sent into Gaza from the West Bank and along the northern border with Lebanon.
A priority for the army would be to retake the so-called Philadelphi corridor, which runs along the border between Gaza and Egypt. This would seal crossings and close tunnels used to smuggle munitions.
The aim would be for the army to then slice up sections of the heavily built-up Gaza, where troops would clear each area of militant groups and their infrastructure.
If Israel was going to march into Gaza, the key issue is an exit strategy, "which is the question everybody keeps asking," said retired general Shlomo Brom, who is now based at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Strategic Studies.
Brom argues that in order to completely halt rocket fire, Israel would need to occupy the launching zones, adding that any reoccupation would be extremely complicated as Gaza could become a "mini-Baghdad …thanks to thousands of armed terrorists willing to fight us."
Former Brigadier-General, Shalom Harari, who is now at Israel's Institute for Counter-Terrorism, said the time was not yet right to start the operation. But a serious attack against Israel could prompt action.
"The objective must be clear, reasonable, achievable and justified but the timing is not right yet," he said. "It's not just a case of it being still winter but it would be something that justifies such a massive effort, such as a rocket attack that results in large-scale casualties or a terror attack on the border… either on a kibbutz or army post inside Israel, where Israeli citizens are killed or kidnapped."
At the moment, the weather is a factor in holding off such an operation as winter clouds make it very difficult to provide aerial support to ground troops. Also, an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who is still being held by Hamas, may be another reason for postponing any major military manoeuvres.
The political fallout of an operation would bring an immediate halt to negotiations between Israelis and the Palestinians brokered during last year's US-sponsored Annapolis peace conference.
Barak told the Knesset foreign affairs and defence committee last week that the Israeli government could "in the near future send the army on a large-scale operation that could lead to war" in Gaza.
Israel last week started a diplomatic campaign to win the support of the international community in backing it to take strong measures to end the ongoing rocket fire. Foreign minister Tzipi Livni gave diplomats a special briefing, warning them that "the situation in the region is unbearable, and the threat of terror from Gaza is growing larger from year to year.
"Israel must act to reduce these threats," she told diplomats. Still, Livni is known to support the idea of a multi-national force in Gaza, but the odds of this happening appear to lessen each day.
Amid the debate on whether to go into Gaza is growing concern that Israel would find itself in a far messier situation. Renowned Israeli novelist Amos Oz last week pleaded with the government and military leadership not to embark on a massive ground invasion.
"The fury, frustration, and inflamed emotions are impairing our judgment," Oz wrote in the Yediot Aharanot newspaper. "Israel must not fall into the trap that Hamas has laid for it by marching into Gaza, because the casualty figure in a land invasion into Gaza will be much greater than the number of Qassam (rocket] casualties in the past seven years."
Other options include a smaller-scale military operation where ground troops would move into northern Gaza, to prevent the city of Ashkelon from being the target of rocket fire, and also southern parts of Gaza, near the Egyptian border, to restrict smuggling of weapons.
The former head of the National Security Council, Giora Eiland, called on the government to consider the option of pursuing "a tacit understanding between Israel, Egypt and Hamas that would allow for a comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza; a prisoner exchange; with Israel resuming full supplies of oil, gas etc while Egypt upgraded security measures on its border with Gaza."
Eiland argued that if such an agreement could not be reached then, and only then, should harsh military and economic sanctions apply.
The full article contains 982 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
